Maymo-Melendez v. Alvarez-Ramirez

• Decision Date: 12 April 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-1141.,03-1141.
• Citation: 364 F.3d 27
• Parties: Jorge J. MAYMÓ-MELÉNDEZ, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. Julio ÁLVAREZ-RAMÍREZ, et al., Defendants, Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 27

364 F.3d 27

Jorge J. MAYMÓ-MELÉNDEZ, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. Julio ÁLVAREZ-RAMÍREZ, et al., Defendants, Appellants.

No. 03-1141.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard November 5, 2003.

Decided April 12, 2004.

Ivette M. Berríos-Hernández with whom Eduardo A. Vera-Ramírez and Landrón

& Vera, L.L.P. were on brief for appellants.

Charles A. Cuprill-Hernández with whom Charles A. Cuprill, P.S.C. Law Offices was on brief for appellee.

Before BOUDIN, Chief Judge, TORRUELLA and LYNCH, Circuit Judges.

BOUDIN, Chief Judge.

This appeal concerns efforts by the Puerto Rico Horse Racing Industry and Sport Administration (the "Administration") to suspend the horse training license of Jorge Maymó-Meléndez ("Maymó") for improperly administering drugs to certain race horses under his care. The district court granted a preliminary injunction preventing Maymó's suspension and the appellants now seek reversal of that order.

Pursuant to the Puerto Rico Horse Racing Industry and Sport Act, 15 L.P.R.A. §§ 198-198s (2000), the Administration was "created as a public instrumentality to regulate everything connected with the horse racing sport in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico." Id. § 198a. The Administration is comprised of a Racing Board, which is made up of three members, and a Racing Administrator; the members of the Racing Board and the Racing Administrator are appointed by the Governor of Puerto Rico. Id. §§ 198c(a), 198j(a).

The Racing Board is "empowered to regulate everything connected with the Horse Racing Sport," 15 L.P.R.A. § 198e(a), including "[t]o prescribe, by regulations, the fines, administrative penalties and suspensions that can be imposed by the [Racing] Board, the Horse Racing Administrator, ... or other authorized officials." Id. § 198e(b)(8). The Racing Administrator is the Administration's principal executive officer, id. § 198k(a), and has the power to "[e]nforce compliance [with] the racing laws and regulations and the orders and resolutions of the Horse Racing Board," id. § 198k(a)(1), and to "[g]rant, suspend temporarily, or permanently cancel the licenses of horse ... trainers" after notice and hearing. Id. § 198k(a)(2).

In 1996, the Racing Board promulgated the "controlled medication program," a set of regulations that governs the administration of drugs to race horses. The controlled medication program prohibits some drugs outright; others are allowed, but only if administered in accordance with established procedures by authorized personnel. Two of the drugs regulated (but not prohibited) by the medication program are Clenbuterol, given to horses with respiratory problems, and Tramadol, which is an analgesic.

Between June 10, 1999, and June 21, 1999, nine horses that had been trained by Maymó underwent post-race urine tests that came back positive for Clenbuterol — one horse tested positive twice, thus making a total of ten positive tests. By August 17, 1999, then Racing Administrator Juan Alves Rueda ("Alves") had filed ten corresponding charges against Maymó, alleging that Clenbuterol had been administered in violation of the controlled medication program. Alves consolidated the charges (the "Clenbuterol case"), assigned Irba Cruz de Batista ("Cruz"), an independent contractor for the Administration, to act as hearing examiner, and ordered Ricardo Pacheco Pacheco ("Pacheco"), an attorney employed by the Administration, to act as prosecutor. 15 L.P.R.A. § 198k(a)(9).

Hearings in the Clenbuterol case were held before Cruz from August to October 2000. In the midst of these proceedings, on September 29, 2000, a horse trained by Maymó underwent a post-race urine test that came back positive for Tramadol. On October 16, 2000, Cruz submitted a report to Alves, concluding that, in all ten instances, Maymó had administered the Clenbuterol in violation of the controlled medication program. Maymó filed objections to Cruz's report, but on November 3, 2000, Alves adopted the report, accepting its findings of fact and conclusions of law. Alves suspended Maymó's license to train horses for five years and imposed a $2,750 fine.

Maymó filed a petition for review of Alves's decision with the Racing Board, 15 L.P.R.A. § 198m, and moved for a stay of the license suspension and fine pending review. While Maymó's petition and motion were pending before the Racing Board, Alves filed a new charge against Maymó based on the positive Tramadol test (the "Tramadol case"); Alves again assigned Cruz as hearing examiner and Pacheco as prosecutor. The Racing Board ultimately granted Maymó's requested stay in the Clenbuterol case, and later Maymó's license was renewed for the following year. Id. § 198o(b).

On April 9, 2001, the Racing Board, by divided vote, sustained Alves's decision in the Clenbuterol case, affirming the five-year suspension of Maymó's license and the $2,750 fine. Pursuant to 15 L.P.R.A. § 198n(a), Maymó sought review of the Racing Board's decision in Puerto Rico's Circuit Court of Appeals. That court granted Maymó a stay of the penalties that had been imposed upon him pending resolution of his appeal.

In June 2001, Julio Álvarez Ramírez ("Álvarez") succeeded Alves as Racing Administrator. Hearings in the Tramadol case were held before Cruz from January to May 2002. On June 10, 2002, Cruz sent a report to Álvarez, concluding that Maymó had violated the controlled medication program by improperly administering Tramadol to the horse in question.

On June 21, 2002, the Puerto Rico Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the Racing Board's decision in the Clenbuterol case. However, Álvarez took no immediate action to impose the license suspension and the fine, there being some uncertainty as to whether the court's stay continued in effect until its mandate issued. On June 26, 2002, Álvarez adopted Cruz's findings of fact and conclusions of law in the Tramadol case. Álvarez directed that Maymó's license be suspended for five years to run consecutively to the pending suspension in the Clenbuterol case and imposed a $1,000 fine.¹

On June 27, 2002, with the suspension of his license from the Tramadol case set to begin on July 1, 2002, Maymó filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2000) in federal district court in Puerto Rico against Álvarez, Pacheco, and Cruz. The suit, directed solely to the suspension in the Tramadol case because the Clenbuterol case remained in limbo in the state court, alleged due process violations: that the controlled medication program was unconstitutionally vague and arbitrary and that the named defendants were unfairly biased against Maymó. The suit sought damages and to enjoin the Racing Administrator from suspending Maymó's license.

On July 3, 2002, notwithstanding the federal lawsuit, Maymó petitioned the Racing Board for review of Álvarez's June 26, 2002, decision, adopting Cruz's findings of fact and conclusions of law in the Tramadol case. 15 L.P.R.A. § 198m. On the same day, the federal district court held a hearing on Maymó's request for interim relief relating to the Tramadol suspension. At the hearing, Álvarez made clear that he intended to suspend Maymó's license based on the Clenbuterol case when the state-court stay expired. With respect to the Tramadol case, the district court ultimately entered a temporary restraining order pending resolution of the request for a preliminary injunction.

On July 11, 2002, Maymó having failed to obtain an extension of the state-court stay, Álvarez suspended Maymó's license based on the Clenbuterol decision.² That same day, Álvarez returned to Maymó his petition for the Racing Board to review the Tramadol decision, saying that review was pointless in light of the ongoing litigation in federal court. On July 14, 2002, Maymó filed a second federal action, similar to the first (except for the addition of Alves as a defendant), to enjoin suspension based on either the Clenbuterol or the Tramadol case; the district court consolidated the two federal cases and issued a second temporary restraining order.

From September 30, 2002, to October 4, 2002, the district court conducted a hearing on whether to issue a preliminary injunction barring the Racing Administrator from suspending Maymó's license. On the first day of this hearing, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss, arguing inter alia that the district court should refrain from deciding the consolidated cases based on the principles of abstention outlined in Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), and that the defendants were covered by quasi-judicial or qualified immunity.

On November 26, 2002, the district court issued an opinion and order holding the following: that the individual defendants were entitled to qualified immunity and immune from money damages; that abstention under Younger was not appropriate; and that Maymó was entitled to a preliminary injunction preventing the defendants from suspending his license and collecting the fines that had been levied against him. The defendants now appeal, arguing that Younger abstention was required and, alternatively, that Maymó failed to establish the prerequisites for a preliminary injunction.

Younger is a court-made rule of abstention built around the principle that, with limited exceptions, federal courts should refrain from issuing injunctions that interfere with ongoing state-court litigation, or, in some cases, with state administrative proceedings. See generally Younger, 401 U.S. at 43-45, 53-54, 91 S.Ct. 746. This core principle leaves open a host of peripheral questions to which the precedents provide only half answers or decisions in tension with one another. See Chemerinsky, Federal Jurisdiction § 13.3 (3d ed.1999); 17A Wright, Miller & Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure § 4251, at 180-81, 191-93 (2d ed.1988). This case poses several of those problems.

Although initially applied to protect state criminal prosecutions against interference, the Younger doctrine has been...